Software Overview
—Feature descriptions and screenshots
—The Timewise GRE vocabulary software story
—Memory and cognition theory behind the software

Basic Software Features

Additional Features

GRE 1230-Word List Features

Simple is Smart: Streamlined Software Design

Studying efficiently means that you learn without exerting unnecessary effort. Because the Timewise GRE software is clean and simple, it takes virtually no time to learn how to use. Because it was designed specifically for GRE vocabulary, it doesn't contain features that won't help you on the GRE Verbal Section's antonym, analogy, and sentence completion questions.

For example, Timewise doesn't ask you to use its GRE vocabulary words in a sentence because the GRE Verbal Section doesn't test you by having you use them in a sentence. While the sentence-context method is a powerful memorization tool (see below), you should only use it as a hint in Recallculator for words you're having a hard time learning through the default spacing and repetition. Creating and reading sentences for every single GRE vocabulary word you want to learn would be tragically inefficient!

This is also why Timewise does not provide or allow audio files for vocabulary words. While pronunciation is necessary to learn how to speak a language—and can prove effective as a memorization strategy—it's generally more information than necessary for each GRE word. Besides, saying words out loud on the actual test will get you in trouble. Simply put, your study time is too valuable to be spent learning how to use software to study with.

As I'm introducing the software, let me also introduce myself. I'm Kevin Klein, creator of the Timewise GRE Vocabulary Software. In 1999, while earning an MA degree in English at Brigham Young University in Utah, USA, I began teaching the Verbal section of our university's GRE test preparation course. For the next four years, I searched for and experimented with vocabulary study methods, ultimately developing new software to help my students improve their GRE Verbal scores. Here's what I found.

Commercial GRE prep manuals have superbly researched vocabulary lists, but their paper-based formats obviously don't provide the spacing and repetition of computerized flash cards. Also, because the words in these manuals are usually in alphabetical order, students run the risk of confusing the meanings of words that begin similarly when studied in immediate succesion. For example, remembering that CAPRICIOUS means 'impulsive, unpredictable, and whimsical' is difficult if you follow it with CAPTIOUS, which means 'extremely critical.'

As with the GRE prep manuals, the existing vocabulary software I found seemed lacking. It didn't fit GRE students' specific task of getting a general grasp on many words quickly. The programs tended to be either overly simplistic and frequently inaccurate in word definitions, or too advanced and complicated for the task of memorizing GRE words.

Because neither my students nor I could find an existing computer program that suitably combined a dependable GRE word list, proven memorization principles, and a simple user interface, I developed Smart Deck and Recallculator. They're exactly what students preparing for the GRE have asked for.

There are two memorization theories that give Timewise GRE Vocabulary Suite its instructional efficiency:

1. Spacing and repetition must approximate 'optimal' intervals. Memory researchers* define the optimum degree of spacing and repetition as the "threshold of recall," the point of maximum mental effort that still ensures recall. It is this mental effort that creates and strengthens the neural pathway connection between the new and familiar words.

For example, if I keep repeating to myself, “Aver means to affirm," it's not going to require any memory effort after the first couple rehearsals, even if I'm not reading it. But, if I pair aver with affirm twice, then study five other word pairs, then go back to pairing aver and affirm, then study ten other words, then go back to aver and affirm again, I have a much better chance of making my memory work to recall the association after not reviewing it for a day or two. This is principle behind the spacing and repetition cycles of Smart Deck and Recallculator.

*Challis, B. H. (1993). Spacing effects on cued-memory tests depend on level of processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19, 389-396.

2. Multiple memorization strategies are better than one. Memorization studies^ have found that the greatest difference between successful and unsuccessful vocabulary learners is the variety and consistency of their memorization strategy use. Thus Smart Deck and Recallculator each represent a different memorization technique. Smart Deck is based on the paired-associate method, which here simply means viewing a vocabulary word followed immediately by its definition. It's how flash cards work. Recallculator tests recall: you have to type in the definition of the word, as best you remember it, before seeing what the actual definition is.

^Kojic-Sabo, I., & Lightbrown, P. M. (1999). Students' approaches to vocabulary learning and their relationship to success. The Modern Language Journal, 83, 176-192.

Both programs rely on spacing and repetition to strengthen the associations between word and definition. Additionally, however, Recallculator gives students the ability to create sentence-context and/or keyword hints for words that prove difficult. For example, if I'm struggling to remember that EBULLIENT means 'energetically cheerful,' I could picture a 'cheerful bull' in my head (keyword method, 'bull' being the keyword linking the word and definition), or I could write a personally meaningful sentence using the word: 'My cousin Selma's ebullient personality is perfect for her job at Disneyland.'

I've conducted primary and secondary research into the effectiveness of sentence-context and keyword methods for students preparing for the GRE. While these methods take too much time to apply to each word you need to study for the GRE, they can help solidify memorization of a few words that you're having difficulty learning through paired-associate and recall-testing alone.